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Boyle Wins Democratic Primary

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Pennsylvania State Rep. Brendan F. Boyle spoke about the importance of Holocaust education as part of a memorial ceremony in Center City in April 2013. He won the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania’s 13th congressional district.

State Rep. Brendan Boyle, a Northeast Philadelphia native who has forged strong ties to the Jewish community, won the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania’s 13th congressional district.

He defeated two Jewish candidates — State Sen. Daylin Leach and former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Margolies — as well as Valerie Arkoosh, a physician who served as president of a health care advocacy group, the National Physicians Alliance.

According to the Associated Press, with two-thirds of precincts reporting, Boyle captured 55 percent of the vote; Margolies, 23 percent; Arkoosh and Leach, 11 percent each.

Boyle won in a race that was originally billed as Margolies' to lose, but she never picked up the necessary momentum, despite receiving endorsements and fundraising assistance from her in-laws, former President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The new Democatic nominee for the 13th District has gone to great lengths to prove himself a friend of the Jewish community. He has built support through actions like traveling to Israel last year on a trip sponsored by the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition and the Jewish Federation of Great­er Philadelphia, and proposing a bill in 2012 to make Holocaust education man­datory in Pennsylvania.